Reading the Lightning Thief in the past
by River Song daughter of Mars
Summary: This is a reading the series story. First in a series i hope to make. It's as unique as possible. You won't regret reading.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. It's actually Artemis's champion here. But I'm using a new account. Since writing reading the series stories can be risky and I want to keep my account I am using this one. When I first decided to write fics I opened this account with another name. When one of my readers said it would be a good idea to start a second story I started this. So enjoy.**

Camp Half-Blood wasn't cheery like it usualy was. Everone had been somber since Percy Jackson , the camp leader, went missing. The only person who wasn't effected by this was Jason Grace the son of Jupiter and Percy's replacement. He was fine with the exchange since he thought he would have even more power over the demigods' lives. Memory loss was the only down side to it. But it wouldn't matter once he defeats Gaea and the gigants once again being the great hero. I am the roman leader now I became the greeks leader too. Who cares if he can't beat Clarisse or Annabeth or Nico. He was the son of Jupiter they would all listen to him when it came to command. After all he was the most powerfull demigod. He ,like his father, was optimus maximus.

But unknown to him camp didn't agree with his thoughts. Not one single one of them. They saw Annabeth as their leader in Percy's absense.

**Olympus ten years ago**

It was the winter solstice and Hestia sat next to her hearth wathching her family. Artemis was yelling at Apollo for flirting with her hunters as he was listening his I-pod. Zeus, Hera and Hades were arguing about Zeus' daughter who was turned into a tree. Poseidon was playing with water as Athena was yelling at him about Rhea knows what. Demeter was yelling at Hermes about some delivery of his and he was busy with his phone ignoring her. Ares was cleaning some sort or rifle, Hepheaestos was busy with the designs of his newest invention, Aphrodite was crying watching a soap opera and Dionysus was eating grapes watching an old recording of a gladiator fight. In other words it was complete and utter chaos.

Suddenly there was a bright light when the light died there were twelve demigods. They stood in two groups and one of them in the middle.

" Who are you to interrupt my council!" Zeus thundered.

A note appeared in his free hand seing the other was holding his master bolt. The paper was black and the writing was silver.

" _Olympians of the past I have sent these demigods ten years into the past to read ten books with you. You gods have to read these books with the demigods so they can know more about the sacrifeces that had been made to get them to the point where they are today. You can't change things openly, the changes you make must go absoulately undetected by demigods. If their pasts change as they know it their present will be destroyed and you will be going blind as even the prophecys won't remain. Needless to say you can't harm anyone. That's all for now. Other time travelers may be sent as you are reading._

_Signed Lord Chaos the creator and ruler of the universe and it's occupants_" Zeus read. " So who wants to read." Athena raised her hand and Zeus passed her the book. Poseidon rolled his eyes as he watched the exchange.

"Wait the demigods haven't introduced themselves." Said Hermes.

A sad looking girl with blonde hair and grey eyes. She was obviosly a leader. " Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus" Athena smiled at her daughter, Annabeth tried and failed to smile back. Athena frowned upon seing this.

"Clarisse la Rue daughter of Ares." Ares nodded at her.

Two almost identical boys stepped up and said in perfect unison: " Connor and Travis Stoll sons of Hermes." Hermes grinned at them and they grinned back but there was sadness in their eyes.

" Katie Gardener daughter of Demeter" Demeter studied her then smiled kindly at her. She smiled back sadly.

" Leo Valdez son of Hephaestos" He shot his son a rare smile and he smiled back a crazy smile.

" Piper Mclean daughter of Aphrodite" Aphrodite smiled proudly and earned a kind smile in return.

" Thalia Grace daughter of Zeus and leutenent of Artemis" Zeus smiled but was ignored Artemis on the other hand smiled at her and got a warm smile in return. Hera and Hades glared the whole time.

"Jason Grace son of Jupiter preator of Camp Jupiter and leader of Camp Half-blood" The guy in the middle of two groups said. Unlike with Thalia Zeus ignored Jason completely but the first group started protesting immediately. Zeus shut them up, sent Jason a disapproving look and gestured for the second group to introduce themselves.

" Hazel Lavesque daughter of Pluto"

"Frank Zhang son of Mars"

" Reyna daughter of Bellona preator of Camp Jupiter. BTW Jason you are no longer preator. Someone replaced you during your absence." Jason looked like he was just slaped in the face. Zeus looked at him and shook his head. He cleared his throat and signaled Athena to read.

"**1 I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGRBRA TEACHER"** Athena read.

"What kind of a title is that ?" Artemis wondered out loud. Everyone shruged. They would have to wait and see.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

" Why a I not surprised was the response from the demigods.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"That could actually work" said Athena and Annabeth.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

" Auch" joked Hermes and Apollo until they saw the somber expession on the demigods' face.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

Demigods looked sad wondering what poor soul was in for it.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

After she read it Athena sent Hermes and Apollo a look daring to joke about it along with the demigods and gods with kids.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

Annabeth looked like she wanted to die when she heard the name. Seing upon her friends pain Thalia put her arm around Annabeth's shaking shoulders and signaled Athena to continue. Poseidon thought the name was familiar.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

" Sort of." Was the response from the greeks.

" NO." Was the response from the romans(bar Jason). The gods arched their brows as the romans(bar Jason) glared at the greeks. Jason wasn't listening, he was upset.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

After hearing this all demigods(bar Jason) looked down. He never thought highly of himself they all thought.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a ****yellow school bus, ****heading to ****the Metropolitan Museum of Art ****to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

All the romans looked up at the mention of their culture.

**I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

Athena and Annabeth would have said something but seing he had dyslexia( I know I spelled that wrong) and ADHD he probably was at a school from hell.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a ****motorized wheelchair****. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome ****collection**** of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

" Hey that sounds like Chiron" Athena commented ignoring the last part.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a ****Revolutionary War**** cannon. I wasn't aiming for ****the school bus****, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

"Blimey this has got to be your kid Hermes." Said Apollo. Hermes looked thoughtful.

" He isn't my son but he may be my legacy. To confirm it I need to know more"

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Greeks fumed and Aphrodite looked sick for different reasons.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

" And why am I not surprised" Said Annabeth regaining a bit of herself. Which surprisingly earned a smile from Frank and Hazel. She shot them a questioning look but Hazel mouthed "later".

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

" Cruel." Mutered all the males.

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

Everybody looked hopeful.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

" I do too but to eat. If I wanted something sticky in my hair I would ask my siblings for their hair products." Said piper making a face. Everybody laughed as Aphrodite looked scandalised at the thought of her daughter eating something with so much fat in it. Annabeth had a sad smile on her face at a memory of Percy making them PB&J sandwich.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

Everybody looked cresfallen but Ares' reaction had the cake. He looked like a kid whose candy had been taken away from him by a bully. Which in itself was hilarious 'cause he himself was one big bully.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

" Of cource." Everyone said. They didn't have to be the Oracle to know where that one would go.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

Everyone except Ares, Zeus and Hera looked at least mildly concerned. Even Hades.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall ****stone column ****with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a ****grave marker****, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

" Why even this clueless boy who sleeps in lesson is trying to learn for once and she is giving him the evil eye. I should vaporize her for being such a poor excuse for a teacher." Athena screamed.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a ****black leather jacket****, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

Hades caught on who she is and mumbled , nervous breakdown my immortal backside, too low for anyone to hear.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

" I hate teachers like that." Said Leo, the Stoll Brothers and Frank at the same time. Then realising this they blinked in confusion.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

" Grover you idiot you will get my legacy killed." Yelled Hermes. Unlike many of the gods he cared about his legacys as much as he cared for his children.

Apollo said " I thought you weren't sure about him being your legacy."

" I wasn't but I checked some records from my phone and confirmed that he is my legacy through his mother Sally Jackson." Poseidon paled. There was no mistaking this. It was his son. He decided that he would keep it from the others as long as possible.

" Wait his mother is Sally Jackson" Surprisingly this was from Hades. The gods stared at him wondering if it was his son.

" In case you are wondering if he is my son because of my reaction and Chiron's presence at the school he isn't my son. And stop giving me those looks I know you knew Bruner was Chiron, it's clear as day." Hades responded sighing.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,**

Annabeth turned red. Thalia looked at her questioningly.

" Grover told me that she along with many girls from their class had a crush on Percy and was wishing it was him. " She whispered. Nobody was ment to hear that but being the supernaturel beings they are all of them heard this. Athena thought this may be a child of big three. Chiron was there and he sounded like an attactive boy. He was powerful and good looking, these two things usually ment the demigod was big three's.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

Athena nodded her approval. Everybody had a right to learn.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

Annabeth almost giggled at the memory of him blushing when he was twelve. He looked so cute. Nowadays though that expression just made her want to kiss him. Well if nowadays ment since they were fourteen

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

Athena didn't think he was a son of Poseidon. Her daughter sounded like she was very fond of him and he didn't sound very dumb so far. Typical teenage demigod.

"**That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because …"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked. **( No I am not putting this dilema. It's too cliché and dramatic. They should suck it up.)

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

" Is eeew all you have to say?" exclaimed the children of Kronos and Rhea.

"**-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

People were trying to stop themselves from bursting out laughing at the accurate but funny summery. Hazel casualy said " That's about it." It was then everybody burst out laughing.

**Some snickers from the group.**

Athena glared.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

" Foolish mortal." Was said through the room.

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

" How in the name of us is he suposed to know!" exclaimed Hermes knowing the poor boy didn't have the slightest bit of idea about his heritage.

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

" Or horse ears. One or the other." Joked Poseidon earning another round of laughter from the gods and demigods alike.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

" Right" everyone said awkwardly.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

" Surprise surprise." Said Artemis sarcasticaly.

" Actually you are very fond of Percy" said Thalia. Everybody looked surprised but they didn't argue. Thalia was from the future and Artemis' Leutanent they were pretty sure she was right about things that had to do with her.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

Hermes looked offended. " Of cource he did he is my legacy." Hera was getting annoyed by Hermes' showing this much care for a demigod ( considering she hates them all).

" Shut up already we get it he is your precious legacy." Hermes glared at her but kept quiet

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

" Oh is the only response you will be getting from a demigod who doesn't know his heritage." Said Zeus. Even he began to have some sympathy towards the boy. But not much.

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

" He is being cruel." Commented Katie. Ares rolled his eyes.

" When is the action gonna begin."

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

" On the bright side maybe it worked." Said the Stolls. They were always very fond of Percy but noe knowing he was a decendent of Mercury they liked him even more.

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

" So tactless" Mumbled Aphrodite.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

All the demigods minus the Lost hero trio looked worried. If Percy of all people didn't have appetite something had to be wrong.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

Demigods who met him knew how much he cared about his mom. They understood that this was why he didn't have appetite. Upon hearing this Hera sat up staighter. This was one of the very few demigods who cared about his mother. Maybe she wouldn't pressure his father so much after all unless it was Zeus.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

" What a fashion disaster" Guess who said that.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

" And people say my temper is bad" said Reyna.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Whiney baby."Grumbled Ares.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

"**-the water-"**

"**-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

" You can say that again"

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

"If his teacher's are like it's no nsurprise he dislikes school. And I thought he was just lazy." Said Reyna.

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"That's cruel."

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

" You can say that again."

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

" Good boy." Said Thalia.

"No not good boy he got you killed." Grumled Zeus.

"Get over it dad it was my choice. Besides I'm back so no harm done."

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

" Quiet litterally." Mumbled Annabeth.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But-"**

"**You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"I would love to erase that smirk off his face" said all the demigoddesses.

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

The demigods bar the trio and Annabeth winced. They all had been in the reciving end of the said glare. Annabeth looked confused.

" It's not that scary."

" Oh it is just that he allways had a soft spot for you." Responded Clarisse.

" And you find everything about him endearing." Teased Thalia effectively turning her face to a pretty shade of red. Demigods burst out laughing.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Possibly a monster."

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Don't be so sure.

**I wasn't so sure.**

There were nods of approval.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

" NO."

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

A few people cursed under their breath.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I doubt it. "

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

" It never is."

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

More cursing

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"So she isn't very fond of us."

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"I won't be eating honey for a long long time

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

" Who are you and what have you done with Percy Jackson." Said Frank breaking the tension that was building.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

" Aren't all teachers bar Chiron evil?" asked Connor causing Athena to give him the evil eye. Even though Connor was scared he didn't give the desired reaction. Her glare has nothing on Percy's he thought but wisely kept that thought to himself.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

People's faces darkened. Oh hell yes she will was what all of them were thinking.

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

" Drama Queen" Said Hades between fake caughs earning a worried chuckle from poseidon as he waited to learn his son's fate.

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

" HE WON'T SUFFER ANY PAIN" yelled Poseidon. Realising his slip he said:

"This is a demigod who is in danger, Lord Chaos said we were supposed to save the demigods." Hoping it would cover for him at least for the time being. Thankfully the gods belived him and returned to the book.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

" It was short." Said Leo. "What? Did someone draw something on my face?" He felt a need to ask it seing the weird looks he was reciving.

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A furry."Athena informed the demigods who didn't know.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"Whar the-?"

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Wow that's one cool sword. Even better than Jason's." Said Leo his eyes wide with admiration. Jason was hit by another wave of jelousy towards Percy. " There is no way he is anywhere as good as me." He thought.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"What a wimp"

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

" How in the name of Jupiter is swinging a sword is natural to anyone let alone an untrained twelve year old who doesn't know about his heritage?" asked Reyna. She didn't get an answer since nobody had a clue.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"Cool."

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

" This boy definetly gets his creativity from me." Hermes mock-bragged.(can you even mock-brag? Not that I care I have already written it)

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Not a chace

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

Everybody looked at Zeus thinking " what a drama queen."

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who asked several people.

**I said, "Who?"**

The previously spoken people looked at random stuff as the others laughed.

"**Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

Zeus looked uncomfartable as people seemed to look at him a lot.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

" Hah my blessing for his lying skills helped Chiron" exclaimed Hermes. It was directed to Zeus who thought Hermes' blessing wouldn't be put to use.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

" I hate it when he looks at me blankly pretending he doesn't know what I'm asking about." Said Annabeth. Everyone even those who didn't know about the subject much agreed with her thinking she was probably right.

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

" awesome." Said Connor.

" No, not awesome he must have thought he was going insane." Countered Hazel.

**This is it for ch1 hope you liked it. It took ages for me to finish it. Anyway I'm out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys I would love to put up chapter two right after chapter one but I was busy. No worries though I'm putting it now.**

After another blinding light there were five more people. One of them was a red headed girl with green eyes, another was a satyr with brown hair and eyes. The boy standing in the middle had black hair and eyes. The other two was a boy and a girl. The girl looked very kind and good natured, the boy had black hair and his mouth was red.

" Introduce yourselves." Zeus ushered them.

" Zeus where are your maners? These are obviously the guests Lord Chaos promised or at least some of them. More could be coming for all we know. Now explain first question later." Hera scolded him. Zeus explained and they started the introductions.

" Rachael Elizabeth Dare the oracle of Delphi" the first girl said.

" Grover Underwood the lord of wild" the satyr said nervously. The third boy recived some glares from the demigods and looked very nervous as well.

"Nico di Angelo son of Hades" he said quickly and made a beeline to his father to avoid getting killed.

" Gwen former centurion of the fifth cohort" said the second girl.

" Dakota son of Baccus and the centurion of cohort five." Said the boy with the red mouth looking drawsy. Gwen snatched his canteen full of kool aid.

" Sorry about that. Is it possible that we had a five minute brake before we start."

" Sure we can." Said Athena.

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT ****THE SOCKS OF DEATH**" Athena read.

Hearing this the demigods, Hermes and Poseidon paled.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

" Duh it's too much for anybody Penny. That's why there are asylums." Said Dionysus.

" That's a girls name and his name is Percy." Said Poseidon as Hermes glared at Dionysus.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

" Mist is a beautiful thing." Said Zeus.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

That had a good chance of working." Sighed Hermes as Jason said " Cause you are."

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

" Almost being the key word." Said Annabeth

**Almost.**

" Told you." She said to the people who had given her strange looks in a sing a song voice. Trying to lessen her friends worry by participating.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

" He actually saw more than we thought he did." Said Grover in a surprised manner.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

The demigods winced thinking about their dreams.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my ****dorm room****. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

Everybody looked at Poseidon and Zeus. Hermes said: " Tone it down you are gonna hurt someone."

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. ****My grades ****slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Athena looked upset as she had high hopes for the boy but Ares was happy. Maybe I can offer him patronage if he keeps going like this he thought.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

The demigods looked offended because they had dylexia as well and knew how hard it was. Annabeth and Athena was amused though. They recived strange looks so Athena explained that a sot meant drunkard. This time everone bursted out laughing. Hermes, Apollo and Poseidon were the loudest ones.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

This earned more laughter as they realised he was insulting the man blindly.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

"If I was expelled from that many schools I wouldn't care either." Said Rachael.

**I was homesick.**

Hers looked like she approved of Percy. Ares was getting more and more excited. The kid was a good fighter and had spunk as well as pride to take the consequnces of his actions. With Hera's approving maner toward him added he would be a great and favoured champion and could keep things between him and Hera cool.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to ****public**** school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Everyone had at least some respect toward him at this point and were very annoyed by the thing tha was supposed to be his step father. Poseidon was thorn, he was happy that nobody had took his rightful place as Percy's father and that Percy could view him as a father he was upset about what he had to put up with.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of ****the woods ****out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"What a thoughtful friend." Hestia said delightfuly.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

" Well this shows that he actually is a good student who has bad teachers." Said Athena. She was upset because demigods were viewed as bad students often even though they aren't

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't ****forgotten**** what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

" Good." Said everyone and Percy's roman friends were happy he was studying latin.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember ****the difference between**** Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

" Even for us it's hard." Complained the romans.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

" Not a good feeling." Said Frank. Everybody looked at him wierdly.

" What my foot sliped and I fell on an ant hill." He grumbled.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

" Not like he gives anything less than his best." Said Hazel.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the ****door handle ****when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

" Idiot." Complained Zeus. He was yet to forgive the satyr.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

" Even I would lose that bet if I had a best friend that is." Admitted Athena

**I inched closer.**

"… **alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"**Sir, he saw her… ."**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

" You didn't fail Grover." Said Thalia.

" Yes he did." Said Zeus.

" I'm pretty sure he didn't Lord Zeus." Thalia answered back in a cold voice. Zeus looked pained that his daughter didn't even saw him as a father. Posiedon didn't show any emotion on the outside but on the inside worry was eating him away. What if Percy would not even acknowlage him as a parent like Thalia.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

" How come I saw that coming." Said everyone.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

Hermes nodded his approval but didn't say anything.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

Athena arched her brow at Chiron's slip but thought that the boy was perceptive.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there ****all night****.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

" Answering would be good I was worried." Said Grover.

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just… tired."**

" And you belived that?" asked Dakota. Grover just looked away.

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but ****the words**** still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing ****the test ****could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Annabeth turned red again.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"This won't end well he will storm out." Said Annabeth.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in ****front of the class****, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

" By Zeus' name someone teach him how to communacate."

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

"**Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

Demigods sighed. It must have been hard.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Some egoistical gods looked annoyed but Poseidon made a silent promise to take his son on a cruse and invite him to his palace. Perhaps even build a room for him. If he doesn't hate me he thought dejectedly. Percy was his favourite son and all he wanted was to be with his son it wasn't much was it?

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

Gods frowned. Children especially their children shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that.

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

" How rude." Hades said sadly. At first the gods were confused then realised that he could relate with the boy easily. They felt guilty about it and added it in their mental list of things that they would change.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

Good ,thought Poseidon, with my pshco brother Zeus out there you can't afford to let him out of your sight.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

cough*cough* ADHD cough*cough* was the response from the demigods.

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

The Stolls smirked thinking about Grover reaction.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

" Right not much." Said Apollo sarcasticaly.

" Actualy yes he missed the more important parts and anything that would give away his heritage." Said Grover. Poseidon almost sighed with relief.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"**Grover-"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

" That's what I've been telling you for years" Nico said dramaticaly. He was still sitting by his father's legs hoping to avoid injuries he knew he would recive from both romans and greeks.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"**What's Half-"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

" When he said that I felt realy guilty you know. It was the only lie he didn't catch but also hurt him." Said Grover.

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

" Then again I should do better. Why would the guy who protected mr the whole year suddenly need me." He continued.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

" I was getting worried for a second. I felt like he didn't want to put up with me anymore."

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

" Look how well that worked out. He protected you from the bullies all year and while both you Chiron there he had to fight the only monster that showed up." Poseidon said bitterly. Grover looked at his hooves guiltily at hearing what his best friend's father said.

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

His guilt incresed when he heared that and felt like he had been a burden to him.

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

" From demon math teachers" joked Conner and Travis.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

Grover paled when he realised what was coming. Poseidon and Hermes will kill me he thought.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

" Sounds peacefull. Too peacefull. Be careful." Said Artemis. Both boys had been groving on her.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Some gods realised what was going on but Demeter hadn't paid attention to the part after the healhy and delicios food. She didn't catch up and neither had the demigods. She was delighted that this boy appeciated healthy food. She quickly told Katie to give him fruits like that when they returned to their home.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

The rest of the gods and a few demigods also came to the realisation of what was going on. Poseidon and Hermes paled. Some of the gods including Ares, yes he came to like the boy, looked concerned as well.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"Ew I am not asking them out." Joked Leo as he was still oblivious to the situation.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

With that the others caught along.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

" This isn't the time" and " Not funny" and things along those lines were heard through the room.

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

" Sadly I don't think it will work." Muttered Nico yet everbody heard him.

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Some people tried to laugh but their attempts only resulted with grim smiles.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

" Not good realy very not good." Said Annabeth. She was shivering with the fear of losing the man she loved. She elbowed Grover in the ribs and scolded at him for not telling her this.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

" Everything." Someone grumbled but nobody could identify who said it.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

Everbody's expession darkened. " Only much much worse." Said Clairesse.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

Annabeth was breathing hard. Was it why Percy wasn't here with them? Because he was killed? No he couldn't be dead, it was impossible. But a voice in her head kept asking " then why isn't he here?" She pushed those thoughts away because she started having a hard time breathing. That and she couldn't afford thinking that way.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

" He is very observant." Said someone she couldn't identfy now. Her ears were burning, her head was pounding. She knew she needed some time before reading the next chapter.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"They snipped the cord." That was the only thing on poseidon's mind.

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

" You got that right." Ares forced out.

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"**What last time?"**

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

" Grover you'r creeping him out." Chocked out Connor.

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"You'r not expecting him to keep that promise while creeping him out like that right?" Travis asked his voice shaking

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

" Unfortunatly real." Poseidon.

**No answer.**

"**Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

" He is good at seing thing we don't want him to see yet he doesn't what we want him to." Thalia said. She was acting tough for Annabeth but on the inside he was loosing it. Yet she had to keep it in. She couldn't loose it not when Annabeth was shaking like a leaf needing her.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

**This is it for now. You guys better be satisfaid it took half of my day. Please review I hate feeling nobody appreciate my work. Especially when I try very hard like this.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long wait guys but I g oto one of the best yet hardest schools around and with encouragment from my teachers I'm realy active so I don't have much free time. The final straw was when my teacher gave me the duty to inrview with my deputy manager. It spells disaster. That man never stops talking and it was soo bloody awkward. Enough of my ranting here is the chapter.**

"**3 GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY ****LOSES HIS PANTS**"

What kind of a chapter title is that? Everybody thought

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Everybody groaned while Hera complained about demigods being rude.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at ****me like ****I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

" Well you did give him a good reason" said Connor.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

" That's my boy" cheered Hermes. " Waiting for his chance."

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

" Awesome", " The best" and " Coolest mom ever" was heard from the demigods that knew her. Poseidon smiled thinking about his lover.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Everyone frowned and some of the braver demigods and gods glared at Zeus.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

" They never do" said Athena unnessecarily causing people to glare at her.

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

Some people sent Poseidon suspicios looks but didn't give it much thought. It's not like he is the only water god out there.

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

Hermes nodded approvingly. " Good cover up."

**She worked odd ****jobs****, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

" No demigod is an easy kid."

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Everybody glared at the mention of him. Poseidon looked downright murderous but the gods didn't see it as they were too lost in their own anger.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

Some of the colder people like Athena arched an eyebrow while the others gritted their teeth.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be ****home from work****. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The ****television**** blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over ****the carpet****.**

Aphrodite and Hera looked turned green and the rest wasn't too far behind.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

"**Where's my mom?"**

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

" Who asks their stepson for cash?" was Hades' response while Hazel said " I would love to give him something." Normally she would never do such a thing but this guy was getting on her nerves. Nobody litteraly nobody messed with her cousin.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

" Never mind me even Eros himself couldn't make him look any better." Aphrodite choked out. She was hypervantilating. ( I consider Eros the primordial god of love like the do sometimes not as Ares' and Aphrodite's son)

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

" IF THAT MORTAL LAID A HAND ON MY SON I WILL MAKE IT SO THAT TARTARUS ITSELF WILL LOOK LIKE ISLES OF BLESSED." Roared Poseidon. He was so outraged none of the gods dared mentioning that he broke the big three oath.

Percy's friends wasn't almost as angry as him. Thunder shook the building( Thalia), the room darkend and tempriture dropped ( Nico and Katie), the red aura caused by blessing of Ares surronded Clairesse, earth underneath them was slightly shaking( Hazel). Annabet and the Romans who knew Percy looked so murderous even the gods were nervous. Finally they calmed down enough to continue reading.

"**I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Aphrodite was taking deep breaths to avoid throwing up or fainting.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a ****bloodhound****, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

"**You took a taxi from the ****bus station****," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in ****change****. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"**Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

" My task is getting harder by second" she thought.

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

" I will be making sure of it." Snarled Hermes so unlike himself.

"**Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

" Says him." Spat Nico.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old ****car magazines****, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

More glares were sent to the book.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

" Ah. Sarcasm is such a beautiful thing." Said Apollo.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

The goddesses were all cooing.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

" Wow that's saying something." Said Leo.

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

"Duh" Dionysus started but opted for stopping upon seing Poseidon's glare. He is one scary god, he thought

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the ****candy shop ****in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

Leo , Stolls , Nico, Frank and Dakota were drolling.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"I wish I had a mother like her." Said Hepheastos.

" But your mother is the goddess of motherhood." Said Hera.

" Yes and Zeus is the god of justice." He said clearly meaning neither of his parents were good at their job.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

This made a lot of people smile but Jason failed to notice this and chose that moment to make fun of him.

" Such a mama's boy." He said. Which led to Poseidon soaking him with water from frozen seas and nobody dried him. Let's just say Jason couldn't talk for a while due to a severe case of hipotermia.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

And the rest of the room joined him except Jason he was still shivering.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

" Or she could have married me." Poseidon thought. He would gladly devorse from Amphitrite if it meant Sally could be his queen. She in a way was his queen, the Queen of his Heart.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

Hermes looked so proud his pride could rival Zeus's.

**Until that trip to the museum …**

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

"**No, Mom."**

" Don't lie to your mom." Snapped Hera.

" Leave my son alone and stay the hell away from him." Poseidon shot back angrily. Demigods were frozen thinking about what will happen to Hera when Poseidon found out what she did to him. Not that they cared. Some were even beginning to smile evilly.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

" Nah not to her"

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

"**I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Poseidon smiled dreamily at the mention of one of his most favorite places. Annabeth was blushing like a tomato and Thalia was giving her a look that said she would never ever let her live this down. Nobody noticed the exchange.

"**Three nights-same cabin."**

"**When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Now Poseidon stopped smiling and growled.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

" I will give you something just come over." Growled Thalia as Reyna growled

" When I'm done with you nobody will hear anything from you."

" They won't even find your body." Threatened Frank and Clarisse.

**I wanted to punch him, **" Yes punching him would be good."

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

Frank, Clarisse, Ares, the Stolls, Nico, Hermes, Apollo, Dakota and Leo looked upset at this.

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"**I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

" He will if he knows what's good for him." Poseidon said gripping his trident.

"**Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

" Bribery will work." Said Hermes trying to calm himself and Poseidon.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Aphrodite looked absoulately scandalised.

"**Yes, honey," my mother said.**

Now it was Poseidon's turn to look scandalised.

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"**We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

" That would make my day." Said Ares genuenly.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"Wrong, nobody cares what he thinks." Said Artemis.

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

" Now isn't this one sarcastic boy." Said Hephaestos said amusement coloring his ruff voice.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

" If he had one in the first place." Said Athena as she rolled her eyes.

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"**Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

" And she put poison in it?" Said Hades with hope in his voice. People looked at him strangely. " What it would be totally wellcome and the judges would probably give her an extra reward for cleaning the world from such a scum like him." He explained.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

" Yes like he would be driving, he is twelve." Athena said.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Everybody bursted out laughing when they herd Athena say the same thing as one of Poseidon's kids but frowned when they herd the second sentence.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Or could be your godly powers." Poseidon said. Zeus wasn't too happy to hear one of his brothers' son being so powerfull, most likely surpassing his children. He was childish but he didn't care his children were supposed to be the most powerfull just as he was. He was the most powerfull right?

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"I'm sure none of that bothered him." Said Gwen.

**I loved the place.**

" See."

" Nobody disagreed." Said Dakota.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

Poseidon thought about how he lost his train of thoughts every time he looked at her eyes.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

Oh how he wished he could be there with them.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

" That would be nice." Athena said as she hated not knowing. Everyone was laughing internally.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

" Wow he has it from both sides that explains a lot."

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

Poseidon couldn't help the smiled that appeared on his face. At least his son cared.

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Thalia snorted" More like his spit out image." Poseidon was doing a happy dance in his head.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

" I always had been and Ialways will be." Poseidon whispered.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

" No, no that adds to his awesomeness." Apollo said.

" Is awesomeness even a word?"

" Well it is now."

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

"**But… he knew me as a baby."**

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

" You visited him?" Zeus growled.

" You may not care about your children but I love my son. I will always be there for him even if he doesn't know it." Poseidon ansewed.

" I forbidden it."

"I don't care about your stupid rules anymore you took my fatherhood away from me for milenia but I won't let you do this anymore." Poseidon yelled. Then a smirk appeared on Zeus' face.

" But you can't do so for a long time as we are forbidden from changing anything openly." He said. Posedon looked so mad he could kill Zeus.

"You better start praying cause if my son doesn't survive these books or hate me because of your rules for if it happens not even Chaos himself can't save you from me for ruining my relationship with my son."

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon shot Zeus a withering glare.

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

"**Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"You better." Said Hera. She would have said more but the glare Poseidon sent her way one hell of a reason to shut up.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

"**Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"**Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

Poseidon turned red with anger remembering how a cyclops actually dared to try to harm his son. Nobody ever herd from that cyclops ever again.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

" Woah like Hercules" Exclaimed Leo.

" No way he is as powerful as my son." Zeus said. Jason agreed with his father his whole life he had been told he wouldn't be as powerful as his half-brother so neither could Jackson be.

" Actually even Chiron says he is more powerful than Hercules." Conner said. Everyone looked at him.

" I had a dream of Chiron talking to the Party Ponies while we were in Manhatan. He said Percy was more powerfull than even Hercules and that he is the greatest hero he ever trained." He explained causing Poseidon to smile smugly and Jason and Zeus to scowl.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

"**Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

" Annie you know he is smarter than you give him credit for." Travis said.

" Don't call me Annie Stoll." She yelled at him. The threat was clear in her voice, call me Annie again and I'll unleash my grief on you. And that was the last thing he wanted so he did the next best thing and said:

" You didn't deny he is smarter than you give him credit for." But he didn't get a response.

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Gods looked at eachother nervously.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"Who is it this time." Dionysus groaned. He just wanted to get this over with.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

"**O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"So this is done let's take a brake."

**I know I will I have been writing for hours. My everywhere hurts. See you as soon as I can.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys I'm back. And here is your chapter. BTW I won't bring Percy here but I will have loads of Percabeth drama, Poseidon will be an overprotective daddy and I have one more surprise for you guys.**

**4 MY MOTHER TEACHES ****ME ****BULLFIGHTING**

" I want a mom lile that." Whined Apollo as Artemis face plamed.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

" Wow that's fast." Said Ares ,Hermes and Poseidon for different reasons. Hermes and Poseidon looked pale saying that as Ares was grinning crazily.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

" I feel soo flatened." Said our resident Goat Boy.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom… know each other?"**

" That's… an intresting way to put it." Apollo said.

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview ****mirror****, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"**Watching me?"**

" Stalker." Said Apollo and Stolls in between fake caughs. Hermes was too caught up in the book to participate.

"**Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

" Good" Poseidon grumbled. His son had enough problems in his life, the last thing he needed was fake friends.

"**Urn … what are you, exactly?"**

"**That doesn't matter right now."**

"**It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

" Uh Grover you were kinda asking for it." Dakota stated.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

" Oh." Stolls said just realising he was right.

"**Goat!" he cried.**

"**What?"**

"**I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"**You just said it didn't matter."**

" He for once has a point Goat Boy." Thalia said trying to hold in a snort. Nobody saw Annabeth had retreated back into her shell.

"**Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

" Like they would dare attacking a demigod." Said Clairesse.

"**Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like … Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"**Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

Annabeth, finally back to Earth,groaned. " That's why he was so confused. Grover you explained things to him the most confusing way possible." Grove just smiled sheepishly.

"**So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"**Of course."**

"**Then why-"**

"**The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize ****who you are****."**

Cue more groaning.

"**Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

"**Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

"**Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"**Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Poseidon gave Hades the evil eye.

"**Grover!"**

"**Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes faster." Ares cheered.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

" And I am a bunny." Said Nico sarcasticaly.

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on ****white picket fences****.**

"**Where are we going?" I asked.**

"**The ****summer camp ****I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

"**The place you didn't want me to go."**

" He just had to point that out."

"**Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

"**Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

" Well it does sound rather ridiculus when you put it like that." Frank observed.

"**Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to … when someone's about to die."**

" Please tell me you do something that would give me an excuse to bless you. If you keep going like that you are gonna get my legacy killed." Hermes complained.

"**Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"**No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

"**You meant 'you.' As in me."**

"**I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"**Boys!" my mom said.**

" Thank Chaos. There someone with sense." Exclaimed Athena.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"What was that?" Poseidon asked worried for his son and lover. Any bit of concern he would have for the satyr drowned in his worry for his family.

"**What ****was that****?" I asked.**

"**We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on ****the tip ****of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner … and the ****sword**** he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

" WHAT!" Was the only response from Poseidon.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

Several people winced.

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

" That must have hurt." Said Apollo rubbing his head like he too felt it.

"**Percy!" my mom shouted.**

"**I'm okay… ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. **

Only thing keeping Poseidon from ripping Zeus' head of was the vines that tied him to his throne.

**Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

" Stop thinking those stuff now Stolls will never let me live it down.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

"**Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Poseidon paled recognising the description.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

"**Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"**Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

Zeus saddened that his daughter had been turned into that very tree. And now she wanted nothing to do with him.

"**What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, ****White House Christmas ****tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"**That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

"**Mom, you're coming too."**

" She can't hero." Hestia said sadly. Poseidon had a terrible feeling about where this was going. He hoped against hope that he was wrong.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

"**No!" I shouted. "You are ****coming**** with me. Help me carry Grover."**

"**Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

Everbody groaned.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

Everyone who didn't realised what it was saw it now.

"**He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

"**But…"**

"**We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

"**I told you-"**

"**Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

Poseidon was torn. He hoped at least his son would survive and maybe find a way to save his mother too but he feared he would lose them both. He couldn't live if they both died.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his ****arms and legs ****like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

Aphrodite looked disgusted.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

This made everyone pale. Well except Jason. He thought that maybe he would die. He forgot that Percy would survive and hoped he died.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

"**Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"**But he's the Min-"**

"**Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"What a remarkeable woman." Artemis thought. If she didn't have a child she would have invited her to join the hunt.

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"**Food?" Grover moaned.**

"**Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

"**His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

" She most certainly knows a lot. Are we sure she is mortal?"

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

"**Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

Athena looked impressed, then like she had an idea. She closed her eyes and looked like she was praying. Then a note fell on Athena's lap. She looked surprised but smug.

" I knew it."

" Knew what?"

" This is a note from Lord Chaos. I had my suspicions and I prayed to him for answers and he answered me."

" And…" Zeus said impatiently

" Sally Jackson is a daughter of Metis titaness of wise counsel. And my half-sister." She awkwardly finished. This revealation surprised everyone but they continued the book.

"**How do you know all this?"**

" We just talked about this." Said apollo gaining glares.

"**I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"**Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Poseidon groaned again.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

" Does he have to be this descriptive?" asked Aphrodite looking green. Needless to say she was ignored.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

Poseidon was hypervantilating.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

Then he sighed in temporary relief.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

" Don't be pessimistic you will give Poseidon a heart attack." Athena said but she herself looked nervous. It was her sister and nephew after all.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

"**Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"**Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

" No" Poseidon choked out desparetly. Tears were running down his face.

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.**

"**No!"**

Poseidon was sobbing uncontolably. Athena looked like she wanted to cry at the loss of her sister whom she never got to know. Demigods looked shaken too. She was like a mother to all of them. If Lupa was the Mother of Rome then Sally Jackson was the Mother of Camp Half blood.

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"Please don't." Poseidon said brokenly. Not him Not his son.

"**Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"**Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea-a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

" Wow I respect him already." Said Leo. He couldn't help it it was so impressive especially for a twelve year old.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

Aphrodite finally lost her resolve and throw up.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

Annabeth nodded absentmindedly. She had the oppotunuty to observe this on the Williamsburg Bridge.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

"**Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

Everyone looked impressed and Jason was jealous. He wanted everyone to be impressed with him. He wanted Annabeth to be impressed with him above all maybe except his father. He really liked Annabeth. But all he got was Piper. It was unfair. He was son of Jupiter he shouldhave the best of everything as well as everything he wanted. He should get Annabeth. She was the most beautiful, smartest and most skilled girl. Definetly the best out there. She should be his.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

" I wonder who it is, one of my daughters perhaps? I know one of them would look wounderfull with him." Aphrodite. Annabeth was red with jelousy and anger. The thought of the man she loved with someone else made her feel that way and hurt her a lot. Like getting stabbed. But it was stronger now that he was at the Roman camp with no memory or even the faintest idea who he is. The possibility of him being with another girl was never so real not even with Rachael around. It made her sick. After everything, after giving herself up to him, sharing that connection. And he was away now. He could be sharing that special connection with someone else. She pushed those thoughts away.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"**Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

" So it's you Annabeth." Said Aphrodite with a glint in her eyes. Jason burned with a jelousy he never felt before. Well he did but never to such an extent.

**So this is it fort his chapter. I was considering updating my other stories on my other account. But I saw more people favorited and alerted this story I decided I would update this one. BTW I just realised nothing is ever certain with this story. So I may bring Percy in. Sally being Metis' daughter was complete improvise as well as Jason liking Annabeth so expect anything at anytime. See you later guys.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Guys sorry if this chapter isn't the best but I am having some personal problems and feel a little down lately. Normally I don't mind flames but for a while: IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE OR REMOTLEY GOOD TO SAY KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. And sorry if it's rude but life's been rude to me lately.**

**5 I PLAY PINOCHLE ****WITH A HORSE**

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

" Those are some weird dreams alright and not even demigod dreams." Said Apollo

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

" Ohh I can feel something good coming up already." Said Aphrodite.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"**I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't…"**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

Then she looked disappointed along with Hazel but for different reasons.

" He could have choked." She said like she was personally ofended.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood ****in corner the****of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them-on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

" What's Argus doing in the infirmry?" Asked Apollo. The demigods just shurgged it of.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

Poseidon winced slightly hearing his son's pain.

**On the ****table**** next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

He got more worried upon hearing how weak his strong son was at the moment.

"**Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orang****e****T-shirt ****that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And …**

Everyone who cared shook their heads slightly. He was trying to find a way to belive it wasn't true.

"**You saved my life," Grover said. "I… well, the least I could do … I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, ****the tip**** splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"**The Minotaur," I said.**

"**Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

" My sentiment exactly." Said Grover.

" We know you said that." Thalia pointed out.

" Oh right." Grover forcefuly said blushing heavily.

"**That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

"**My mom. Is she really …"**

Poseidon closed his eyes trying to ignore the pain he felt.

**He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

Leo cleared his throat uncomfortably " Right that was um deep." He said trying to break the tension. He knew where he was coming from. After all he too had been in that position. People said they understood but realy it was plain useless. If they understood they wouldn't say that sentence in the first place.

"**I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

"**Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

The said goat looked uncomfortable. " That's not necessary" He said nervously probably scared that certain troublemakers caugh* Stolls caugh* Leo caugh*

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

Poseidon bowed his head. He failed them. They were his only family that felt like family other than Hestia and yet they suffered because of his failuare.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to ****live with ****… Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

" Not in a million years. He would live with me and if Amphitrite and Triton have a problem with it I know where they can stick it. That goes for all of you." Poseidon said hotly daring the council to defiy him. Nobody did though. They liked to live way too much.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.**

" I kinda did actualy."

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

"**Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

"**Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"**No. But that's ****my job****. I'm a keeper. At least… I was."**

"**But why …" I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

"**Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies-my mom's ****homemade ****blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

All the females bar Athena, Artemis and Annabeth cooed. Athena and Artemis because they were too proud and Annabeth because she was too upset to.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

"**Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

"**What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

"**Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just… wondered."**

"**Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

"**Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

" Cool" Ares and Clairesse said grinning at the thought of violence.

"**That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

"**What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

They also grined at the thought of dynamites as Thalia and Nico rolled their eyes. The goat boy was way too cautious.

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

Several gods nodded their approval while Jason shook his head in disgust. Thinking Jackson is egoistical when he himself is being the egoistical one.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the ****water****, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. ****Canoes ****glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange ****T-shirts ****like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

Reyna just nodded, but Hazel and Frank leaned forvard wanting to hear more about their friend's home.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so ****black it ****was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a ****trailer park****. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.**

Everyone bursted out laughing. Only Jason and Dionysus didn't laugh. Jason was furious he didn't show proper respect even to the gods yet they favoured Jackson above him and Dionysus was fuming silently on his throne but not saying anything in fear of angering Poseidon.

"**That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron… ."**

" But he won't be polite." Nico said.

" Yeah more like opposite." Said Thalia.

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

"**Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

" Still with Mister Brunner." Grumbled Dionysus stil annoyed from the description.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

"**Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

The gods with children glared at Dionysus as demigods ignored him being used to it.

"**Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

Poseidon was very disturbed by this. Oh Percy was never gona forgive him.

"**Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Annabeth payed special attention to that part. She was mostly pleased but when she heared the first part of the sentence she was angry and a little self councious but felt satisfied in the end.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.**

" In your dreams." Said Thalia in between laughs.

" Actualy it was impressive but I didn't want him to get big headed." Annabeth corrected her.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

"**So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

"**Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

"**Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D … does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"**Oh. Right. Sorry."**

" Then he totally ignored it."

"**I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

Many people rolled their eyes at this. But Jason was thinking he really did wasted his time.

"**House call?"**

"**My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to … ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"**You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

"**Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

"**Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"**You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

"**I'm afraid not," I said.**

"**I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

" You don't need to call him sir Dionysus." Said Hermes. Dionysus turned purple at the insult.

"**Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"**Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

"**I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

"**Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

" Which isn't realy your place." Grumbled Zeus.

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

"Well percy is his favorite along with Anabeth." Stated Connor.

"**Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

"**She said …" I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

"**Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

Then he was hit on the head by something then felt like choking. Aphrodite had thrown a parfume bottle at him, nailed him on the head and caused him to choke because the parfume bottle broke on impact.

"**What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

"**I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"**Orientation film?" I asked.**

" He never saw it? Well it most certainly explain his cluelessness." Annabeth said.

"**No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"-he pointed to the horn in the shoe box-"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods-the forces you call the Greek gods-are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

" But he didn't yell not." Apollo pouted.

"**Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

"**Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

"**Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

"**Well, now," Chiron said. "God-capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

"**Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

"**Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

" Smaller!" Zeus exclaimed offended.

"**Smaller?"**

Nobody dared to say a word. Well they didn't have to they were too busy laughing.

"**Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

"**Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

"**Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

" Dramatic like father." Pointed out Hephaestos.

"**But they're stories," I said. "They're-myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"**Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody-"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals-they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

" Mortals actualy made some progress but unfortunatly the same can't be said about you." Said Hermes unusually cold.

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

"**Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

He could have had it but he chose me and to help the other demigods. Annabeth thought. She knew she was the main reason though for some frightening seconds she feared he was going to take up the offer. But then he looked at her and made his decition. She still felt that warmth spread thruogh her when she remembered that look with love in his eyes. She would never give up on him.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

"**You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"**Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

" That's hitting belove the belt." Said Piper wincing. She never knew Chiron was this tactless.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

"**Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

" I'd like to see you try." Poseidon snarled at him.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

"**A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

Zeus glared at Dionysus who smiled shepishly in return.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

"**Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

" Surprise my immortal butt." Zeus grumbled.

"**Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

"**A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

"**Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

" To us." Said Travis.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

" I agree." Zeus said still at the same point. Like father like son.

"**And …" I stammered, "your father is …"**

"**Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

"**You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

"**Y-yes, Mr. D."**

"**Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

" No way." Screamed Aphrodite.

"**You're a god."**

"**Yes, child."**

"**A god. You."**

" Yes we are still processing it." Apollo added.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

Poseidon gave him a look said I dare you and he paled.

"**Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

" Yes."

"**No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"**Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

"**I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

"Never gona happen."

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

"**Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been … ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

"**Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"**Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

"**You mean the Greek gods are here? Like … in America?"**

"**Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

"**The what?"**

"**Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know-or as I hope you know, since you passed my course-the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps-Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on-but the same forces, the same gods."**

"**And then they died."**

"**Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not-and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either-America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

" So are romans mind you." Said Reyna.

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

"**Who are you, Chiron? Who … who am I?"**

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"**Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"**What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

" Yay let's meet the campers." Said the stolls in a childish tone.

**This is it for now if I get reviews fast I will do my best and update ASAP.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys sorry for the wait but blame it on all the exams I had to take. I had like 11 exams since my last update and I still have more to go. I'm feeling slightly better though. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed and were concerned. I really do appreciate it all greatly. Love you guys.**

" Before we start reading I would like to know what is your relation with my son." Poseidon said to Annabeth. Athena wondered it too. She so would have asked( and possibly got annoyed because of her daughter's closeness to the sea spawn but he was her nephew so she figured it was fine)

Annabeth was annoyed at Poseidon though. " He is my boyfriend and best friend though it's none of your business but his life." She said to him coldly. Poseidon was dumbstruck. Normally he would be annoyed that a child of his was with a child of the bird brain but he was surprised how coldly she regarded him. Did that mean his son didn't care for him at all in the future. The thought alone made him sick. And Jason was furious at the thought of_ him_ dating _his _Annabeth.

**6 I BECOME SUPREME LORD ****OF THE BATHROOM**

" This should be intresting." Commented the stolls trying to keep a straight face.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

" I feel ya bro." Leo and Dakota commented. Dakota cause he had to clean the stables a few times. This got a laugh from the Romans but everyone looked at Leo weirdly but figured he was involved with horses at one point.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."**

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD ****T-shirts****, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

" Not a flip but it would be cool too." Said Travis.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale ****seaside resort****. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

" Good instincts." Hades comented.

"**What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

"**Somebody lives there?"**

"**No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

Apollo grumbled something nobody could understand.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

" One of the perks of being my legacy." Hermes commented.

"**Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Of cource he would make wine out of them the moment no one is looking." Zeus grumbled.

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

"**Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean … he was a good protector. Really."**

Hestia smiled at how good a friend he is.

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

" But he did that." Leo complained.

"**But he did that!"**

" Cool I think like a living legend." Leo exclaimed doing a small happy dance. Jason turned red with jealousy. He was the living legend not that wimp.

"**I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate … ah … fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

" As they should." Poseidon grumbled earning some glares from the demigods though the gods who cared about their kids were secretly agreeing with Poseidon.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the ****bus station****, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

" Everytime." Thalia said reffering to the times he blamed himself for things he couldn't help.

"**He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

"He shouldn't have had." Zeus scoffed.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age… ."**

"**How old is he?"**

"**Oh, twenty-eight."**

"**What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

" Exactly." Said Leo than turned to Grover " Oh you poor guy." He said than pulled him to a hug. By this point half of the room were sure he lost it.

"**Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

" Woah think anout how old Hedge must be." Leo thought out loud. Piper face palmed for Zeus' sake they had had that conversation before.

"**That's horrible."**

"**Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career… ."**

Grover paled at the thought.

"**That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

" Oh it wasn't that bad." Thalia said earning funny looks.

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.**

" Oh boy. This isn't good." Nico commented. Thinking about bringing back the dead was a bad bad idea.

"**Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real …"**

"**Yes, child?"**

"**Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

"**Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now … until we know more … I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

" So not gonna work with a grandson of Metis." Athena said.

"**What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

" Yes I was wondering about it." Gwen said.

"**Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

Hermes face palmed. That was terrible.

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

"**Stocked ****with what****?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"**You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

" He does." Poseidon said.

"**My own-?"**

"**No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

Than frowned. His son didn't even have Riptide and the shield and armour he had the cyclops forge for him.

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the ****canoeing ****lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

"**Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

" Yes the ones you are best at." Nico said making Jason jelous all over.

"**Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone ****picnic tables****. No roof. No walls.**

"**What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

" You do realise that it was a fair question, right?" Reyna asked. She had became protective of him and maybe developed the tiniest bit of a crush on him. The Greeks blushed realising his question was rather sensible.

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre ****collection ****of buildings I'd ever seen.**

" I would expect so seing how different from eachother we all are." Apollo said.

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of ****basketball hoops ****(which were more my speed).**

" Duh he destroyes anyone that challenges him including the Apollo cabin." Said Connor. Hermes and Poseidon smiled smugly at a grumpy Apollo.

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined ****firepit****. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

" He saw me." Hestia commented from her place near the hearth" The first in many years." Everybody looked at anywhere but her feeling guilty.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers ****mausoleums****, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of ****the twelve****. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

"**Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

"**Correct," Chiron said.**

"**Their cabins look empty."**

" They should just be honorary." Hera grumbled.

" Explains why yours feel like a tomb." Annabeth shot back angrily. Nobody questioned why she was there, they didn't have the courage to do so.

"**Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

Poseidon smiled thinking he would go in.

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

" No don't stop him. He should go there" He said forgetting that it was a book and Chiron couldn't hear him.

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

He was now sulking at his throne.

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

" The Ares cabin." Rechael said.

" Oh look those are your siblings Frank." Dakota teased him then got whacked on the head by Gwen.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

" Yes a valid observation." Hera commented thinking about the mess they created when they were around.

"**No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

" Too bad." Grumbled the Stolls.

"**You said your name was Chiron. Are you really …"**

**He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

"**But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

" Straight to the point isn't he." Hephaestos commented.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish … and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

" Well of cource he is. He always had been and always will be needed." Said Annabeth.

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

" You got it right." Commented Ares.

"**Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

"**No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

"**Why depressing?"**

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

The greeks complained about how they hated it when he did that.

"**Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

The said blonde scoffed at being called the blond girl.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

" Not that." She said blushing because of the looks she recived.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

Connor groaned." Of cource it just had to be an architecture book."

"**Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

"**Yes, sir."**

" Ugh so formal. At times like these I can't be thankful you met Percy." Said Travis.

"**Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it… ? A caduceus.**

Hermes smiled brightly as did Martha and George as well as they could being snakes.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

Hermes frowned. His children shouldn't have to live like that because the other gods are too lazy to claim their kids and don't respect the minor gods enough to even represent them at camp.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

"**Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

Hermes' frown deepend and Poseidon joined him.

"**Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

Hera frowned at their rudeness.

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.**

"**Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

" What a warm welcome." Frank said sarcastically obviously upset at how they were treating his best friend.

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

"He sounds like Luke." Hermes said brightly.

"**This is Luke,"**

The Greeks frowned deeply at the sound of his name.

" What's wrong with my son?"

" Everything." Connor and Travis grumbled under their breath as Annabeth said " Nothing." Clairesse agreed with the Stolls. He just killed himself in hopes that he wouldn't be dumped to the fields of punishment. He knew he would die either way, he chose to save his sorry butt.

**Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

" I wasn't."

" For now?"

"**For now?" I asked.**

"**You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

" Smart boy." Reyna said brightly. Jason was getting even more jelous now and grumbled " Smart ass." Under his breath but Hades and Nico heard him and glared murdurously at him. He almost wet himself. Nico now regretted not letting Percy teach him how to glare better thinking he got it. If only he listened he could make Jason wet himself like he should have.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"**How long will I be here?" I asked.**

"**Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

"**How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

Poseidon's ears turned red.

"**Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

"**I've already seen it."**

Thalia groaned. " Just take a hint."

"**Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

"**What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

" He was though, for both things." Nico commented.

" Shut up Nicky." Annabeth said her face all red. She was glad Percy discovered how annoyed being called that made _Nicky. _Nico on the other hand was realy made that someone other than Percy used that nickname. It was kinda like Annabeth calling him Seaweed Brain. It didn't bother him that much from Percy but from someone else it was very annoying. If she wasn't in the condition she was in he soo would have something she wouldn't like to hear but bit his tounge.

"**What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"**

"**Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

"**To get killed?"**

" He does make a valid point." Hazel supported.

"**To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

" Most certainly not to waltz around challenging monsters." Frank said.

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories …"**

"**Yes."**

"**Then there's only one."**

"**Yes."**

"**And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So …"**

"**Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

" Geez are you people incapabable of giving proper answers and to think you bunch have been doing it like for years." Commented Dakota quickly taking a sip from his emercancy flask when Gwen was looking the other way.

"**Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

" Yes totally." Said Travis.

"**They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"**

" Oh I just love his way of putting things. He makes the most serious stuff hilarious." Leo said.

"**The Fur … I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

" Doesn't he with everyone?" Jason commented bitterly. He annoyed so many immortals from the stories he heard at camp so why hadn't anyone killed him?

"**How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

"**You talk in your sleep."**

Aphrodite squeled internally. She watched him sleep.

"**You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

"**Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or … your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

"**My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

Poseidon winced.

"**I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

"**He's dead. I never knew him."**

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."**

"**How can you say that? You know him?"**

"**No, of course not."**

"**Then how can you say-"**

"**Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

"**You don't know anything about me."**

"**No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

"**How-"**

"**Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

"**Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD-you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

"**You sound like … you went through the same thing?"**

"**Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

Gods looked concerned about their children.

"**Ambrosia and nectar."**

"**The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

" That would be a disaster." Apollo comented.

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

"**Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

" You tell her girl." Thalia cheered her on.

"**Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

Athena turned red." You wouldn't dare!"

"**Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."**

Then she looked like she wanted to scold Annabeth for cursing but realised that she didn't have the right to do so.

"**We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

"**Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like … the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

"**No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

" I agree." Artemis said giving Ares a disgusted look.

" Says the one who lives in a forest." Ares shot back and they glared at eachother for a few moments before Athena continued reading.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

"**Percy."**

"**Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

"**Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.**

"**Stay out of it, wise girl."**

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

Hermes nodded.

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking-as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out-that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

"**Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

Poseidon turned red then glared at her. She covered in fear.

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

Some Greeks snicked but were silenced as she glared at them.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

Poseidon nodded in agreement.

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

And was smirking openly at this point.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

" Of cource I was shocked. He just used his powers to give the camp bullies a lesson they remember to this day.

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you …"**

"**I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

" In your dreams." Poseidon shouted.

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

" Good comeback." Hermes said smiling brightly.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"**What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

"**I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

" Of cource she has an idea." Connor said rolling his eyes.

**Finally this is over I thought I wasn't going to get it done for a second. See ya later guy and please remember to review.**


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